As host of the 54th annual ACM Awards, Reba McEntire didn’t waste any time calling out the Academy of Country Music for failing to nominate a single woman in its top category, entertainer of the year.
“Do you know it snowed in Las Vegas just a few weeks ago?” McEntire said Sunday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. “It was so cold, it froze us women out of entertainer of the year.”
The joke drew a few gasps from the crowd. McEntire went on to seemingly provide someone who would’ve made a good nominee: Kacey Musgraves, who recently won album of the year honors at the Grammys, among other awards.
“But you know what, that didn’t bother Kacey Musgraves, because she’s been too busy carrying all of her Grammys around,” McEntire quipped.
This is the second year in a row that women have been left out of the entertainer of the year category at the ACM Awards. The award has been handed out 48 times since 1971, though only eight women have taken it home. The most recent prize went to Taylor Swift in 2011.
The ACM Awards is airing live on CBS. The show itself is being produced by Dick Clark Productions, a division of Valence Media, the parent company of the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group.
